Amac Keylogger Standard Edition Review
Mac keylogger with functionality that may be enough for monitoring of your mac at home. In our testing, it gets 243 out of possible 772 points.A keylogger for Mac that is very easy to use and pleasant to look at. Its functionality may be enough for monitoring of your home Mac.
IMPORTANT! This keylogger doesn't ask for the password of administrator during the installation! Make sure you are not violating the local, state or federal law installing it!
Advantages:
- Good URLs interception
- Good security
- Grouping of the intercepted information and settings into categories
Disadvantages:
- Available in English only
- Zero file activity monitoring
- One side interception of chats in all messengers except Skype
Installation
InstallationSo we download the installer of Amac Keylogger Standard Edition, mount the image and double click the application. As a result the keylogger shows us a message telling it is going to restart in stealth mode. It also lets us know the default hotkey combination that should be pressed in order to access it. We click "OK", press the hotkey combination and the window of Amac Keylogger Standard Edition opens.
Again, the keylogger shows us a message. This time it asks us to open System Preferences → Universal Access and enable access for assistive devices. It is important to know that despite the website claims that Amac Keylogger Standard Edition can be installed without knowing the password of administrator, enabling access for assistive devices, requires the password.
However, the keylogger will be able to monitor the websites visited and both sides of chat conversations even without turning this feature on. You will also be able to see the screenshots made by Amac Keylogger Standard Edition without enabling access for assistive devices. As we want to see the keystrokes typed, we do what the keylogger asks and click "Next". Amac Keylogger Standard Edition asks us to restart it, we do this and the keylogger opens.
Interface
InterfaceWhat we see is the Log Viewer. The information logged by Amac Keylogger Standard Edition is grouped into categories: per user and per type of information. The list of the categories is located in the left column of the Log Viewer; the rest of the window shows the information itself, including user's account, time and name of the application it was intercepted in. Everything is easy to use and looks nice.
"Settings" window also groups all the information, but this time the list of categories is located on the top of the window. There is not much to say about "Settings" window, it just also leaves an impression of the one that looks nice and is handy to use.
OS Support
Amac Keylogger Standard Edition runs on all the versions of Mac OS X operating system from 10.5 Leopard to 10.8 Mountain Lion. The website of developers claims that they also have a version of their keylogger supporting OS X 10.4 Tiger, but we didn't test it.
Security
Security SettingsAmac Keylogger Standard Edition has good security: its folder is hidden, it can be accessed by pressing a hotkey combination and provides its user an option to protect it with a password. It can't be configured to be accessed by typing a keyword instead of pressing the hotkey combination that is not a big lost.
Unfortunately, it can't be configured to uninstall itself automatically on a pre-specified date and can't be set to show warning message, informing the computer users about the fact they are being monitored. These two options can't be called "excessive".
Monitoring
KeystrokesAs for "Monitoring" section, Amac Keylogger Standard Edition doesn't have much to show here.
It logs only typewriter keys. No functional keys' logging, no clipboard interception, no logging of system log on/off and inactivity time, no mouse clicks logging, no interception of started applications, no sounds' logging, no interception of logon password (according to developers' website the Professional Edition of Amac Keylogger does log the passwords), no logging of documents printed and absolutely zero file-activity monitoring.
As for the screenshots, Amac Keylogger Standard Edition can do them and allows its users to configure not only the period of their making, but also their quality and compression rate.
Unfortunately, it can't be configured to make a screenshot of an active window only, not the entire desktop. It also misses a feature of making a screenshot every time a mouse button is clicked.
Online Monitoring
Visited WebsitesAmac Keylogger Standard Edition is very good at monitoring visited URLs — it logs all the visited websites in all the browsers taking part in our testing except Opera. As for the messengers, despite the claims of its developers, Amac Keylogger Standard Edition seems to log both sides of chat conversations made in Skype only (among the messengers taking part in our testing), as for the rest of them — only one side can be found in "Keystrokes" section of the logs.
The keylogger neither logs sent, nor the received emails. It also can't be configured to make a screenshot every time a new website is opened.
Reports
Email SettingsAmac Keylogger Standard Edition can be configured to send you the log files by email. Uploading the log-files to FTP server is also an option. All the corresponding settings are located in "Advanced" section of the "Settings" window for the reason known to the developers only. Amac Keylogger Standard Edition can't send the log-files via LAN or copy them to a portable device, yet the first two options fully compensate this.
As for the logs' management, the keylogger doesn't allow its user to set the maximum size of a log file, but can be configured to perform their auto-clearance.
Unfortunately, it can't be configured to monitor only pre-specified users and applications, doesn't show the duration of events and will not allow you to choose the period of dates you would like to view the information for. However, you still can perform a search in logs using the corresponding field of the Log Viewer.
Other
The keyloggers for Mac that we test usually doesn't have much to show in "Other" section.The situation is the same with Amac Keylogger Standard Edition.
It can't be configured to somehow react to set list of keywords, it can't work on schedule and can't block websites and applications from starting. It is also available in English only.
The Bottom Line
Summing up we can say that Amac Keylogger Standard Edition is an easy-to-use keylogger for Mac with nice interface and functionality that can be enough for monitoring of your home Mac.
Monitoring Software Features
Reports the group that basically analyzes the convenience of the intercepted information reading, including not only the ways to filter and show it, but also to deliver it remotely.
